The site is the former home to the Southpark Pontiac Buick GMC dealership on Whyte Avenue; together with Don Wheaton Chevrolet Oldsmobile, located a block down the street, it served as one of the company’s flagship stores.

The auto oriented, weak urban design of the site is reminiscent of a different time in the history of Whyte Avenue, when vehicular access was the focus. As the surrounding properties have redeveloped into vibrant, pedestrian oriented spaces, the site has become a hole in the urban experience and a barrier to connection between the University area to the west and the iconic historical developments further east on Whyte Avenue.

The redevelopment project consists of rezoning four areas to accommodate a range of commercial uses on Whyte Avenue and residential developments on 81 Avenue that provide for an active and inviting pedestrian oriented streetscape.

Updates

The Southpark on Whyte sign, measuring nearly 70 feet tall, has been sent to a warehouse to be refurbished while a developer builds a new retail and residential structure on the old car lot. Read the full article from CBC here.

Over the last couple months, we have been listening to community feedback and stakeholder review of the proposed zone and a significant amount of work to improve the level of design detail in the zone has been done. Have a look at the latest DC1 Provision which has the following key characteristics: – Four distinct areas […]